The Politics Of Nostalgia: The New Urban Culture In Ankara’S Historic Neighbourhoods

Abstract

In recent years, the historical centre of Ankara has undergone remarkable processes of restoration and renovation. New shops, cafés, restaurants, hotels and museums have been opened, while the city’s historic neighbourhoods are being (re)discovered by tourists and local residents alike. These new tourist sites are characterised by neo-Ottomanist cultural practices, neoliberal economic activities and Turco-Islamic connotations. The restoration and transformation of Ankara’s historic neighbourhoods constitutes a spatial embodiment of the ruling elite’s cultural politics. The representations of Ottoman heritage are intended to signify the ruling elite’s power, as well as a new notion of public memory. They are profoundly influenced by Turkish popular culture, and especially by popular TV series on different periods of Ottoman history. In this way, however, the authenticity of these new historic sites is implicitly called into question. Ankara’s new urban culture appears as the perfect example of restorative nostalgia, which Svetlana Boym has defined as a nostalgia that promises to rebuild a lost past and fill gaps in the popular memory with new constructions. This chapter is based on field research which investigates the (re)created nostalgia culture of Ankara’s historic Hamamönü and Hamamarkası neighbourhoods.